Rs 5,000 crore spent on printing new notes post demonitisation

New Delhi, Dec 19: Rs 5,000 crore was spent on printing of new Rs 500 currency notes post demonetisation was informed by the government to the Lok Sabha.

Minister of state for finance P Radhakrishnan, informed in a written reply that as many as 1,695.7 crore pieces of Rs 500 denomination note were printed till December 8.

The amount spent on production of Rs 500 notes was Rs 4,968.84 crore, he said.

The minister also informed that the RBI printed 365.4 crore pieces of Rs 2,000 notes. The cost incurred is about Rs 1,293.6 crore.

Similarly, Rs 522.83 crore have been spent on printing of 178 crore pieces of Rs 200 notes.

"New design notes in the denomination of Rs 50, 200, 500 and 2,000 have been introduced after demonetisation," the minister said.

In another reply, he said the surplus transferred from the RBI to the government has declined by Rs 35,217 crore in 2016 -17 mainly on account of increase in expenditure on printing of currency notes.

The RBI had transfered Rs 65,876 crore as surplus to the government in 2015-16. The amount reduced to Rs 30,659 crore in 2016-17.